Episode 354 – Mr. Tim Cartmell | Whistlekickmartialartsradio.Com

Episode 354 – Mr. Tim Cartmell | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com Jeremy Lesniak: Good day to you and thank you for tuning in. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 354 and today, I'm joined by our guest Mr. Tim Cartmell. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host on the show. I'm the founder at whistlekick and I love the martial arts. I love the traditional martial arts; it's kind of been my life since I was, well, very small. I'm still very small but I'm at least older now. Enough of that, it's getting silly. Let's talk about whistlekick. whistlekick, we make the show, we make uniforms and sparring equipment, and a number of other things to enhance your training experience. And you can find all of those items at whistlekick.com and many of them are available on Amazon. If you shop on whistlekick.com, you can use the code PODCAST15 to save 15% on everything. We've got a ton of t- shirts and just check it out. If you haven't been over there lately, check it out. We're adding new stuff pretty much every week. If you're new to the podcast, you might want to check out our show notes. Those are at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and we do a lot to add context each and every episode from photos and videos of the guests, links to their social media, their websites, and pretty much any time we talk about something on the show, we'll give you a link to it. Whether it's another episode that we've done or maybe just another website or a YouTube video — whatever it is. We try to give you as much as we can around the show notes to bring value to your experience listening to the show. Today's guest has trained all over the world in multiple arts. He's competed, he has a school, he's lived the passionate, dedicated martial arts life that many others have. But here, today on the show, he goes in-depth as to his mindset and what he's learned — how he's bettered himself through that process. I Episode 354 – Mr. Tim Cartmell | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com found it fascinating, I found it relatable, and I've got a feeling you will also. So I'll step back and welcome him to the show. Mr. Cartmell, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. Tim Cartmell: Thank you very much. Jeremy Lesniak: I appreciate you being here. We almost didn't make it. You were the second one on the docket for today and I had already had to reschedule the first one because, listeners, I live in the woods. I live in the woods of, depending on how you term your geography, Central or Northern Vermont and we had a wet snowstorm overnight and ended this morning, and power lines down and trees down and... It's been chaotic but this must have been meant to be because literally five minutes, maybe ten minutes, before the recording time, it came back on and I went, ha! Let's see if he's there, and he was there. You were there and I appreciate it. Tim Cartmell: It's a sign. Jeremy Lesniak: It is a sign. We're gonna run with it. Let's talk about why we're actually here, though. We're not here to talk about the parallels of living in the woods of Northern Vermont. We're here to talk about martial arts because you and I, and most of the folks listening, are martial artists so let's talk about martial arts. Let's talk about how you got started. What's that story? Tim Cartmell: Well when I was a child, we're pretty rough in 03:13 as kids. And I was kind of... you know, we wrestle a lot. My uncles taught me how to box a little bit so I kind of had a previous position to that kind of thing. And I can't remember where I first saw kind of Asian martial arts, maybe Karate on TV or something and I was merely fascinated. You know, there was kind of this whole systems of martial arts people trained in and you know, when you're a kid do anything Asian... it seemed very exotic when there are Asian. So I started asking my parents, I remember, when I must have been 10 if I could do Karate. That's the only martial art I've heard of. So, you know, went a couple of years, and then the Kung Fu series came on and then it was, you know, me and every one of my friends wanted to be like Kwang Chai Caine, right? So I started asking and I was probably 11, I think, and I started doing Taekwondo. And I did that for, I want to Episode 354 – Mr. Tim Cartmell | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com say a year, and then I switched. I found a Kung Fu school and I went to train. And I stayed in that system, at least, 'til I was out of college, and I went to Asia. So I practiced, it was Kung Fu San Soo and I started... I must have been 12 and I was about 23 when I left. So I practiced 04:34 daily from being a kid until that age. Jeremy Lesniak: Okay, cool. So what kept you going? Tim Cartmell: I loved it. It was one of the... You know, sometimes in life, you find something, you know, like some athletics or a hobby or you know, kids want to learn to play an instrument and a lot of kids will play it for a year or two and be like, yeah you know I'm not really into it. And then you find something that, for whatever reason, who knows, I don't know, whatever reason, you really feel like you've found your niche kind of thing. And that's how it was with me and martial arts. Honestly, I never really analyzed it; I just did it. And it just seemed like something that I just would do, you know? Like it became a natural part of my life. So I like everything about it but I'm not really sure. I've asked myself this question. I still practice everyday now. It's been 40-something years. So for whatever reason, it was one of those things. I found martial arts and I just love doing it. I like everything about it and I just kept doing it. Jeremy Lesniak: Now here we are, 40-something years later. You're still training, as you said, everyday. That's something that continues to blow me away - the number of people who will train everyday. Because in our society, especially in Western culture, we tend to get bored. We tend to move on to the next thing, the best thing, the greatest thing, whatever, and we don't see a lot of personal practices that involve anywhere close to daily ritual especially when it comes to something challenging like martial arts, and especially when it comes to doing it for decades. Tim Cartmell: Yeah Jeremy Lesniak: But martial arts seems to be and exception, doesn't it? Do you have any thoughts? You've been practicing longer than I have; any idea why martial arts seems to speak to some of us so strongly? Tim Cartmell: Episode 354 – Mr. Tim Cartmell | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com Well, like I said, it's hard to say. I think the art part is harder that, you know, people... there's a certain amount of, I mean there's the discipline to do it but people have discipline in a lot of areas. I mean getting up and going to work everyday require discipline, right? I think it's something that we do but I feel like... We all have these different reasons we're doing martial arts. You might want to learn self- defense, you might want to compete, you know, you might like the culture, you know, if you practice an art from another country. But there's something about the self-cultivation aspects that I feel people... I feel like if it becomes route like you go oh, I need to workout everyday, I'll just do martial arts - you won't keep doing it. You know what I mean? Like you just said, you'll find the next exercise method or you'll try something new. But there's something about the art part where... it's kind of a vehicle for self- cultivation and once you start it... And you know, you could cultivate yourself in a lot of different ways but if you're inclined towards something athletic and you have that kind of drive to practice and then you see the benefit and you can see you'll never gonna master it, there's always room for improvement; I feel like that that's maybe one of the critical points. So if you say well I just want to be in shape. So you know, I get up every morning and, I don't know, I jog and I lift weights for an hour, I mean in shape. That's fine. But there's no, you know, unless you're a professional athlete or something, you don't really have an idea of constant improvement. So that becomes, you know, a worthwhile discipline but it's more of a chore.

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